Latte

A latte (shortened form of the Italian caffe latte or caffellatte pronounced [?kaffel?latte], meaning "coffee milk") is a coffee drink made with espresso and steamed milk. When used in English, the word is also sometimes spelled latte or lattethe diacritical mark being added as a hyperforeignism. Northern Europe and Scandinavia have traditionally used the term 'Cafe au lait' for espresso and milk, although in the US this term is used for brewed coffee and scalded milk. In France, 'caffe Latte' is mostly known from American coffee chains; a combination of espresso and steamed milk equivalent to a 'latte' is in French called Grand Creme and in German 'Milchkaffee' or 'Melange'. Variants include replacing the coffee with another drink base such as masala chai (spiced Indian tea), mate or matcha, and other types of milk like soy milk are also used.
Coffee and milk has been part of the European kitchen since the 17th century (there is no mention of milk in coffee pre 1600 in Turkey or in the Arab world). 'Caffelatte', 'Milchkaffee' and 'Cafe au lait' are domestic terms of traditional ways of drinking coffee, usually as part of breakfast in the home. Public Cafes in Europe and the US it seems has no mention of the terms until the 20th century, although 'Kapuziner' is mentioned in Austrian coffee houses in Vienna and Trieste in the 2nd half of the 1700s as 'coffee with cream, spices and sugar' (being the origin of the Italian 'cappuccino').
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term caffe latte was first used in English in 1867 as caffe latte by William Dean Howells in his essay "Italian Journeys".[1] Kenneth David maintains that "...breakfast drinks of this kind have existed in Europe for generations, but the (commercial) caffe version of this dr

nk is an American invention".[2]
The French term 'Cafe au lait' was used in cafes in several countries in western continental Europe from 1900 onwards, while the French themselves started using the term 'cafe creme' for coffee with milk or cream. The Austrian-Hungarian empire (eastern Europe) had its own terminology for the coffees being served in coffee houses, while in German homes it was still called 'milchkaffee'. The Italians used the term 'caffelatte' domestically, but it is not known from cafes like 'Florian' in Venice or any other coffee houses or places where coffee was served publically. Even when the Italian espresso bar culture bloomed in the years after WW2 both in Italy, and in cities like Vienna and London, 'espresso' and 'cappuccino' are the terms, 'latte' is missing on coffee menus.
In Italian latte (/?lte?/; Italian pronunciation: [?latte]) means milk  so ordering a "latte" in Italy will get the customer a glass of milk.[3][4]
In English-speaking countries 'latte' is shorthand for "caffelatte" or "caffellatte" ("caffe e latte"), which is similar to the French cafe au lait, the Spanish cafe con leche, the Catalan cafe amb llet or the Portuguese galao.
The Caffe Mediterraneum in Berkeley, California claims Lino Meiorin, one of its early owners, "invented" and "made the latte a standard drink" in the 1950s.[5]. The latte was popularized in Seattle, Washington in the early 1980s[6] and spread more widely in the early 1990s.[7]
In northern Europe and Scandinavia, a similar 'trend' started in the early 1980s as 'Cafe au lait' became popular again, prepared with espresso and steamed milk. 'Caffe Latte' started replacing this term around 1996-97, but both names exist side by side, more often more similar than different in preparation.